rk of it toward the guard-tent.

"Yes, sir."

"But you thought it worth while, did you?"

"I thought it necessary, sir."

The General paused, drumming on his table, making up his mind. Then his
chin came up with the decision that we loved in him.

"I shall sift all this," said he. "An officer's name was mentioned,
and I shall see him myself. Meanwhile you had better go on--fighting."

IV

Corporal Connal paid the penalty of his crime before the sun was far
above the hill held by the enemy. There was abundance of
circumstantial evidence against him, besides the direct testimony of
Raffles and myself, and the wretch was shot at last with little
ceremony and less shrift. And that was the one good thing that
happened on the day that broke upon us hiding behind the bushes
overlooking the donga; by noon it was my own turn.

I have avoided speaking of my wound before I need, and from the
preceding pages you would not gather that I am more or less lame for
life. You will soon see now why I was in no hurry to recall the
incident. I used to think of a wound received in one's country's
service as the proudest trophy a man could acquire. But the sight of
mine depresses me every morning of my life; it was due for one thing to
my own slow eye for cover, in taking which (to aggravate my case) our
hardy little corps happened to excel.

The bullet went clean through my thigh, drilling the bone, but happily
missing the sciatic nerve; thus the mere pain was less than it might
have been, but of course I went over in a light-brown heap. We were
advancing on our stomachs to take the hill, and thus extend our
position, and it was at this point that the fire became too heavy for
us, so that for hours (in the event) we moved neither forward nor
back. But it was not a minute before Raffles came to me through the
whistling scud, and in another I was on my back behind a shallow rock,
with him kneeling over me and unrolling my bandage in the teeth of
that murderous fire. It was on the knees of the gods, he said, when I
begged him to bend lower, but for the moment I thought his tone as
changed as his face had been earlier in the morning. To oblige me,
however, he took more care; and, when he had done all that one comrade
could for another, he did avail himself of the cover he had found for
me. So there we lay together on the veldt, under blinding sun and
withering fire, and I suppose it is the veldt that I should describe